cross-Canada/US expeditions

We're back from our many trips this summer and now that I am caught up on sleep and slightly more organized I can get back to blogging...that is if anyone still reads this?!

We went to Calgary, Portage, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, and then home for the first trip of the summer to see friends, family, and for Mike's school reunion. It was SO good to see some of our very good friends that I so treasure and wish could all live nearby. We had friends stay with us right before we left and the times together were rich. We ended up staying in basements, old bedrooms, and tents and the memories are gooders!

Our second trip was to Creation Festival in Washington with our youth where I (gulp) cooked for 18 of us. It was hot, dirty, musical, wonderfully fun, full of inside jokes, and memorable. I love having relational time with youth and just being able to live life together for a few days.

The night we got back from Creation we washed our laundry and headed straight through to California to go to Disneyland (our happy place) with Mike's parents. They had never done something like this or travelled very far before so I think it's safe to say we blew their minds! It was very fun and I still don't think it's possible to have a bad day at Disneyland.

The Knott-type things that made these seemingly idyllic trips full of...hair-pulling? craziness? We didn't know where we were staying until a few days before we went to some places...(thanks all you friends who let us be spontaneous/lazy/disorganized/indecisive)...I've never camp-cooked for 18 people before and one meal was a gong show of what do we eat off of? cook with? beg other people at a state park for?! (this was happening at the same time as me parking the rental van on a soft shoulder which meant it was stuck but good) ...and driving through San Fran was awesome but then we got into Anaheim at midnight and got up at 7 something for Disney the next morning all after next to no sleep for a week...yup I think we do this to ourselves sometimes but life is never boring!

So, now I'm enjoying summer at home and relaxing as much as possible before school starts for Aidan and Becca. The sun is even shining today, which hasn't happened much here this summer, so I am now going to go jump through the sprinkler with my munchkins. Pics of all the goodness in the next post...